The Substitute

Replica #13

by Marilyn Kaye

Amy never knew whom Mr. Devon worked for--the organization that's after her, or some other secret government agency. All she knew was that he seemed to be her ally. He always appeared just when she needed help or vital information. But ever since Mr. Devon's death, Amy has relied on her own smarts to survive. And she'll need them more than ever now that a new substitute teacher at school has it in for her.
Ms. Heartshorn has a reputation for being demanding. She doesn't tolerate fools or careless work. And her feedback can be . . . well, a little harsh. Amy hates her. But when she learns why Ms. Heartshorn is really at school, Amy totally flips out.

Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult, Middle Grade, Fiction, Childrens

150 pages, Paperback

First published August 8, 2000

About the author

I was born in New Britain, Connecticut, and grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. I also spent a year (5th grade) in Montgomery, Alabama, and a year in Ann Arbor, Michigan(8th grade). As a child, I always wanted to be a writer, but I had lots of other ambitions too. I wanted to be a teacher, a librarian, a movie star, the president of the United States, and a ballerina.

I didn't achieve all my goals. I never became a movie star, the president of the U.S., or a ballerina. But I've been a teacher and a librarian and most of all, a writer. I've been writing for as long as I can remember. Growing up, I always kept a diary. I wrote poems, stories, plays, songs and lots of letters. Writing wasn't easy for me, but it felt natural and right.

I've always read a lot, too. I was an English major at Emory University (I love Shakespeare), and I also received a master's degree in library science at Emory. I earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Chicago, and I taught children's and teen literature at St. John's University in New York for over 20 years. Now, I'm a full-time writer, living in Paris, France - the most beautiful city in the world.

Reviews

[Lila · Rating 3 out of 5]

I could feel Amy's frustration with Ms Heartshorn, and share it.

One thing that does bother me is that this is book #13 and she is STILL 12 YEARS OLD! You'd think more than one year passed. I need to see her as a proper teenager.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

So this one annoyed me. Eric's egging Amy about the boyfriend/Paris stuff gets old quick. But then Amy does stupid things like emailing kissy marks to Andy still, so she half deserves it. Gah girl, pick one and work it. It drove me nuts how she was behaving there.
What the substitute teacher does in regards to Tasha and Eric made me mad! Oh, I wasn't a fan of her in the first place but that was by far way too far! Amy does need to learn a sense or responsibility. She is getting more and more shallow as the series progresses. Cheating to help on an eye exam?! Seriously?!?!
I overall enjoyed it, but certain things really irked my on this one. I hope Amy starts to mature again. The regression in her behavior does nothing for me.

[Tiffany Spencer]

The Substitute
Amy, Tasha, Nancy (Amy’s mom), the Morgan parents, and Eric are out eating at the TV Diner. They’re celebrating Amy and her mom’s return from Paris and Eric is being snide. Amy and her mom fill them all in about what happened in Paris. Only Eric and Tasha already know. Tasha has some news too. Three cheerleaders were kicked off the squad. Amber Vincent, Kristy Diamond, and Vickie Gilligan were involved in a scheme to steal the mid-term exams. Tasha says they’re looking for replacements and Mrs. Morgan suggest Amy and Tasha try out, but they say no point in it. Only girls in tier clique are choosen. Tasha tho says she’s been thinking about if not to just break from the idea that outsiders can’t try out. Plus it would make a good article for the Snooze.

Mrs. Morgan suggest Amy try out, but Eric says if she did it might look like she gave a damn about one of the players. Amy has to excuse herself to the bathroom during dinner. She knows she shouldn’t have told Eric what happened in Paris, but she didn’t want to keep secrets. On the way out she runs into her teacher (Mrs. Weller) and a handsome man (Mr. Lasky) who seems very into Mrs. Weller. Tasha is pretty interested in this and looks around the room for them but can’t see them. Her mother tells her she needs to sign up for the eye exam coming up at school.

Later, Tasha points out to Amy that Eric is jealous and asks who she likes better Andy or Eric. Amy admits she doesn’t know and Tasha tells her then she’d better choose one. Amy gets an email from Andy that the creeps in the Catacombs found out he was spying and he can’t go back, but he’s not in any danger. He says he’s almost through with school here, and my dad is meeting me in the south of France for a vacation. Then he says he misses her and asks what’s happening there. Amy and Andy have been emailing every since she got back 2 days ago.

Before they watch their favorite show Crime Solvers, an anchorwomen names an announcement that because of the budget situation there will be a hiring freeze for teachers in the Los Angelos County Public schools. This episode about Crimesolvers is about a man named Martin L. Martin L. turned out to be a man who used his computer a lot. Not only did he lose money, he’d had his driver’s license revoked and his credit destroyed, and he’d become a suspect in an international drug-selling scheme puter a lot. Some thief had managed to hack into his line and had basically stolen his identity. Tasha warns Amy to be careful of what she says in her emails to Andy. She reminds her then of the organization.

The next segment is about the body of a woman was discovered on a street in a small Indiana town. She was found behind the wheel of a car, shot in the back of the head. This makes Amy sad and think of Mr. Devon. At the end of the show Amy calls the number and reports the unsolved mystery of a man named Mr. Devon who was found dead in a car on a highway in Oregon. She gives the date and time of event. In Mrs. Weller’s class, Dr. Noble makes the announcement that Mrs. Weller has been “called away” and there will be a substitute taking her place. The new teacher’s name is Ms. Heartshorn.

Amy’s first impression was—gray. Everything about Ms. Heartshorn was gray. She had short, severely cut gray hair. She wore a shapeless gray suit. Even her skin had a grayish hue. She quickly lets it be known she doesn’t care about how Mrs. Weller did things. She intends to do things her way. Amy couldn’t help thinking that Ms. Heartshorn’s eyes had lingered on her a second longer than they had on anyone else. And she could have sworn she’d seen a flicker, the tiniest change in the teacher’s face, at the moment when she said her name.

Amy gets to her English class five minutes early after lunch. She’s the first one there. She asks Ms. Heartshorn if she likes it here so far and she replies curiousity killed the cat. She tries to impress her by knowing Mark Twains name and the date Huckleberry Finn was written. This only gets them an assignment of reading the first chapter. Amy finishes first and this gets her the assignment to write a short summary of the first chapter. She tells Tasha Ms. Heartshorn is just *MEAN*! Tasha advises maybe she just wants to be feared. Amy goes with Tasha to tryouts. The cheerleaders say the tryouts are postponed but they can sign up and then they’ll be notified. Amy lip reads some girls saying they don’t even see why Tasha showed up. She hasn’t got a chance. She decides not to tell Tasha. One of the cheerleaders (Claire) clearly wants Amy and not Tasha. Tasha doesn’t let it deter her. She says she’ll audition and be so good they’ll *have* to accept her. At Amy’s, Tasha and Amy give themselves a more “mature” look with fake nails Amy got in Paris. Her mother tells her to give the new sub a break. Its her first day. Amy hopes it’ll be her last.

There are a bunch of instances where Ms. Heartshorn picks on Amy. In homeroom, she’s caught passing a note and accused of not paying attention until she recites back the announcements word for word. There’s a quiz and she gets them all right but is accused of cheating and gets a O. She also gets a F on another quiz and its written on her paper you can do better than this. She even snaps at Amy when she finds one of the other student’s contacts.

Tasha comes to Amy with a problem. It’s the day of the vision exam. While the good thing is Amy will miss Ms. Heartshorn’s fourth period English class, Tasha will have to have glasses and cheerleaders can’t wear glasses. So, she asks Amy to memorize the letters on the chart and tell them to her so she can memorize them and get a perfect score. Ms. Heartshorn shows up, but they pull it off and Tasha gets a perfect score. Amy will just have to pinch her if she squints in front of her parents. She’ll tell them they put the results off. The thought of putting contacts in her eyes makes her ill. That night, Mr. Devon’s murder is mentioned on Crimesolvers. Eric is a little warmer to Amy after she tells him she submitted the murder to the show.

Amy gets mad when she hears certain girls will be picked because they’re part of the clique and decides to try out and of course she blows them away. Ms. Heartshorn is filling in for Mrs. Weller and just stares at Amy but doesn’t say anything. Tasha’s audition was decent. She wasn’t as fast but she put her all into it. She seems to be happy that Amy will make it but Amy says she’ll just turn the spot down. She asks Tasha if she’ll be heartbroken and she no but it sounds a bit wistful. So, they go to an expensive ice cream place. There they see Mr. Lisky. He says he doesn’t know where Mrs. Weller is and he’s been worried. Amy ask if he’s called the police and he says he hasn’t. He’s been to her place but it doesn’t look like anything’s been disturbed. So, they exchange numbers and promise to call each other if they hear anything new.

Neither Tasha nor Amy are picked for the squad. Claire tells Amy they all wanted to pick her but Ms. Heartshorn wouldn’t let them. Amy tries to confront Ms. Heartshorn but she tells her Dr. Noble wants to see her in the office. Dr. Noble says she heard they cheated on the vision exam and they confess and tell her how and why. She tells Tasha she could have just worn a band to hold the glasses. They ask who told and she says “they were observed by a teacher”. Their punishment is taking the vision test over and detention for 3 days. Tasha fails the test and needs glasses. Amy goes perfectly but realizes the eye chart spelled out YOU ARE IN SERIOUS TROUBLE!

She goes back again and asks Ms. Heartshorn why she hates her but she says she doesn’t. Before she can answer her about why she picks on her, the sub is called away. Amy decides to snoop in her briefcase and finds a picture of her from the yearbook. Of course, she’s caught. Ms. Heartshorn says she’s there to watch her-like Mr. Devon- because she’s been careless (taking tests to fast, displaying her super abilities during the tryouts, reading all the letters on the vision chart, etc). She seems to know where Mrs. Weller is but says Amy doesn’t need to know that, but she can tell everyone her mother got sick and she went to her hometown. She calls Mr. Lasky but he says she’s not at her mother’s. He checked and wants to know who told her that. She accidently says her teacher’s name and Mr. Lasky seems to think she’s trying to get her job because of the teacher’s freeze.

Amy confronts her mother about knowing Ms. Heartshorn and she says that she was told by her it would be easier to observe Amy if she didn’t know about her. She doesn’t know where she comes from but she trusts her. Tasha says it’s the daily emails to Andy and then Eric gets mad and walks out.

When she checks her email, Andy hasn’t written for the first time. So, she writes him and mentions that she has a new teacher and she doesn’t know how they’ll get along. Amy again gets scolded for helping a boy carry a box that came into the classroom that’s extremely heavy. She tries to talk to Ms. Heartshorn about Mr. Devon but she’s not interested in hearing Amy reminisce. Tasha and Eric brush her off during school and later on after school. She confronts them and finds out Ms. Heartshorn told them it was in their best interest to forget about her. That’s when Tasha and Eric decide she might not be on their side. Mr. Lasky calls and says he’s hired a private detective and will tell Amy what he finds out.

Mr. Lasky comes to the school and Amy gets a bathroom pass and meets him in the parking lot. He tells her Bonnie’s been kidnapped and she’s being held for randsom. It’s a woman and she’s demanding a million dollars. The caller said if he went to the police, he’d never see her alive again. Ms. Heartshorn comes out and makes Amy go inside. Amy makes sure to say her name. Mr. Lasky and Ms. Heartshorn stare at each other. After school, Mr. Lasky tells Eric, Tasha, and Amy he recognized the teacher’s voice as the woman who’d called him. He also had her number traced to her home. Her home was searched but Mrs. Weller wasn’t there. They found a clue in the apartment of a road map to South Oregon. It’s the same place the camp was. Mr. Lasky says he’s going to have it checked out.

It's announced on Crimesolvers that someone saw someone leaving the scene when Mr. Devon was found killed in his car. They worked with a sketch artist. The sketch is of Ms. Heartshorn. Amy realizes Mr. Lasky was right. Ms. Heartshorn arranged to make Ms. Weller disappear so she could take her place, so she could watch her. Amy tries to call Mr. Lasky but a recording says his phone is disconnected. So, they find a way to go to his house. He says he was just on the phone with the investigators and they told him where Bonnie is being held.

When they get there, Amy realizes it’s the dentist’s office where she was once held. They see Ms. Heartshorn and Mr. Lasky tells Tasha and Eric to follow her while he and Amy go inside to rescue Mrs. Weller. Once inside, Amy realizes that Mr. Lasky said he was talking to the investigators but his number was disconnected. He leads them into an office that’s very familiar. He goes to look inside one of the doors. Ms. Heartsborn appears and tells Amy to get out of there but she punches her and she’s knocked out. Lasky calls for her and before she knows it a mask is being held over her face and she blacks out.

When she comes too, she finds Ms. Heartshorn tied up with her. She tells her to use her strength to free them. Lasky has been the one working with the Organization. She doesn’t know where Ms. Weller is. She’s from Project Crescent. Lasky has gotten away and he has something with her DNA (her nails). But luckily, she tells the teacher they’re fake. Eric and Tasha come and pounce on the teacher until Amy tells them to let her up (taking her time about it). -Oh and Lasky was the one who turned in Heartshorn to Crimesolvers.

Amy is about to go to school when she recognizes a familiar voice on the news. Her teacher has been on the trial of a case that’s been talked about on Crimesolver’s with an organization called “The Green Spiders” and she announces she’ll be oming back to school. Her last question gets answered. Earlier in the book a fax comes through from Andy of a heart that has crossed out lines through it but her mother says it’s just the fax machine acting up.

My Thoughts:
I absolutely had a teacher like this that liked to pick on me all the time. Her name was Mrs. Henry and she taught history. She was the meanest lady you ever wanted to meet in your life. That is until I showed her up. Then she let up on me. At the end, I realized what direction this was going in when Mr. Lasky got Amy, Eric, and Tasha to come with him. I never really thought Ms. Heartshorn was the bad guy. I just thought she had an ulterior motive (not necessarily evil). I didn’t see at all that Mr. Lasky was a part of the Organization and I wondered why the Green Spiders kept getting mentioned. But in the end it all fit. I do tho think Ms. Heartshorn was right. Amy is getting a little sloppy and needed to be checked. Should she continue to do this, I don’t see it going well for her.

Rating: 6

[Jonathan Pongratz · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5

I wanted to love this book, but in the end it missed some marks for me.

Alright, so this time around Amy is dealing with fallout from Eric after she gets back from France and admits that Andy was there. To make matters worse, Amy has a new substitute teacher that seems fixated on humiliating and punishing her. But when Amy starts to connect some dots pertaining to her former teacher's sudden disappearance, she and her friends do some detective work to figure out what the substitute's true intentions are.

This book had the elements of a good story, but there wasn't enough meat to it to really compare to some of the more epic adventures Amy has had thus far. The plot overall felt like filler to me. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of decent things here. There's a real sense of mystery towards Mr. Devon's demise and some real twists and turns along the way. It just didn't take things to that next level for me.

Amy actually regressed a bit in this novel, which I understand to a certain extent due to her relationship issues with Eric and his jealousy. It was just a little underwhelming to see her forget how she's supposed to act around other people. I would've preferred to see her hold herself together more since she's already established herself as a strong, rational young woman. I think this book did her a small disservice in that way.

The writing, flow, and pacing was all great. I just wanted a bigger adventure out of this one. Hopefully the next one won't disappoint!

[Dominique · Rating 3 out of 5]

I absolutely forgot the plot for this book. It was so fun reading it from scratch. But here is where older reader me is finding some “stretch that imagination” as I get deeper into the reread of the series.

Firstly, how and why Amy is STILL twelve years old?! I think I firmly believe that Amy’s age is a hinderance. I do understand the “puberty at twelve” angle — but Amy hovers between being too old or too bratty for an advanced clone — and it shows a lot in this book.

I hated Ms. Heartshorn then — and I still hate her now. Back then, she was just so mean and so not Mr. Devon. But now… I can articulate that I didn’t like Ms. Heartshorn for many reasons. She is one-dimensional and very underdeveloped — especially as a counterpart to Mr. Devon (who I loved and didn’t remember was killed so early in the series).

Mr. Devon worked so well as an enigma. The push/pull of “is he a good or bad guy” constantly left you guessing and engaged as a reader.

Ms. Heartshorn gave nothing and was supposed to be trusted at face value, yet also hands off — which just didn’t work and needed more development for the 150 pages. Especially because we are supposed to believe HELICOPTER PARENT NANCY trusts her and we have no real explanation for why?! Nancy didn’t even speak about Mr. Devon outside of that one time they randomly interacted outside of the school and we never heard about it again or got any backstory (Now that I am older — justice for that scene that could’ve been!)

Switching gears, I absolutely loved the 90s tv show nostalgia in the diner meals. Popular?! No one ever remembers Popular as a tv show. It wins hands down for that reference.

As always, I ate this book up! It was a solid read for me decades later, so I absolutely know twelve year old me would have given this five stars.

[Eleonora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muistelin, ettei Sijainen koskaan ollut mikään varsinainen suosikkini, mutta kirja paljastui yhdeksi parhaista osista, joita olen nyt lukenut. En muistanut loppuratkaisua, joten jännitys säilyi pitkälle melkein loppuun saakka. Iloinen yllätys!

[Meteori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ne mogu se oteti utisku da je ova knjiga mogla biti baš dobar krimi roman. Nažalost, završen je i prije nego što je počeo.
Potpuno nerazrađeno i kratko. Ocjena je visoka jer je skoro sve do samog kraja bio zanimljiv.

[Em's Adventures · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one was so good! Even though I have read it before I couldn't remember what happened and I loved the mystery all over again because I can never solve it myself.Mrs Heartshorn was super annoying though!